Amazon snares 'Game of Thrones' writer for its 'Lord of the Rings' series

Amazon is keen to fill the void left by Game of Thrones, hoping to hoover up show fans with its planned Lord of the Rings series.

And now, according to Variety, the studio made a decisive move in that direction by hiring Bryan Cogman to consult on the show.

Cogman was originally hired as a script co-ordinator and assistant to the showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff on GoT, but ended up writing 11 episodes over the show’s eight seasons.

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His first was season one's Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things, while he also wrote celebrated episodes Oathkeeper and Kill The Boy.

He also penned A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, critically crowned the best episode of the show's divisive eighth season, and one of the best of the entire series.

Cogman was also promoted to producer of the show in series five, before becoming an executive producer.

Though he was also hired by HBO to develop a prequel spin-off series, he confirmed last month that it had not been picked up.

He will work alongside writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay, who were signed up to write the Lord of the Rings show last year.

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But little is known about Amazon's plans for the Tolkien series, though it has been confirmed that it will take place during the 'Second Age of Middle Earth'.

It's thought that the show will concern itself with the first rise to power of Sauron (the LOTR series deals with his return).

The studio is ploughing a staggering $1 billion into the multi-series show, according to reports, though details of production, filming dates and casting are yet to be revealed.